Quick action saves a life

Friday

Mar 29, 2013 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - Neighbors and emergency crews credited a woman for helping to save the life of a stabbing victim who ran into a south Stockton apartment complex while fleeing from his assailants Thursday evening.

Jason Anderson

STOCKTON - Neighbors and emergency crews credited a woman for helping to save the life of a stabbing victim who ran into a south Stockton apartment complex while fleeing from his assailants Thursday evening.

Police, paramedics and firefighters responded to a report of a stabbing near East Church and South American streets at 6:37 p.m. When they arrived, they found a man who appeared to be in his 20s suffering from a severe stab wound to the left arm. The man told authorities he was stabbed by a woman following a dispute at a nearby residence.

Witnesses said the man was bleeding profusely before emergency personnel arrived, leaving a long trail of blood along a sidewalk and a large pool of blood in front of an apartment belonging to the woman who came to his aid.

"I saw him coming this way, and he was getting chased by somebody with a bat," the woman said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety. "I said, 'Sir, you want something to stop the blood?' Blood was just squirting out like a waterfall. The guy was bleeding to death, and some other guy ran up and was still trying to attack him."

The woman said she escorted the victim to her porch, where her child's father wrapped a towel around his arm to stanch the bleeding.

Lorrie Rivera, another resident of the apartment complex, said the man was convulsing and might have bled to death if the anonymous woman hadn't offered to help. "If she wasn't home, he would've died right there," Rivera said.

Officers with the Stockton Police Department arrived to take over first aid until firefighters and paramedics reached the scene. Emergency crews quickly stabilized the man and took him to a hospital for further treatment. The victim was expected to survive, said Officer Joe Silva, a spokesman for the Police Department, but firefighters said it could have been a life-threatening injury if the man hadn't received help right away.

"He was cut pretty deep," said Ralph Ibarra, a spokesman for the Stockton Fire Department. "Responding crews said it could have been a fatal wound if he had not received some sort of first aid right when he did from residents of the apartment complex."